Michael B. Jordan's Movie 'A Journal for Jordan''' Is a Family Love Story: 'Love Is the Strongest Bond'

Viewers get to watch a real-life love story unfold from the beginning in the new movie A Journal for Jordan, opening in theaters December 25. Director Denzel Washington takes everyone on a journey meeting Dana Canedy, a guarded New York Times editor played by Chanté Adams, and First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, a clean-cut soldier portrayed by Michael B. Jordan.

As families will see on-screen and as Canedy chronicled in her memoir, King helped her ease out of her own hesitations in life, and they were then able to let their love fully take shape. "It's about Charles and the love of his life, finding each other, falling in love, going through life's lessons, and coming out on the other side stronger," Jordan tells Paula Ngon of :BLACKPRINT, the Black employee affinity group at Dotdash Meredith.

Their romance blossomed throughout the film, leading to their engagement and pregnancy ahead of King's deployment to Iraq. Before King went overseas, Canedy gave him a journal to start filling with advice and loving words for their son, Jordan. The words King wrote are everlasting, as his son still uses those same messages left in the 200-page journal from his father for his own personal guide after King died during combat in 2006. And Canedy holds on to the never-ending impact he had on her life.

"I've always been insecure personally in my skin and so when this amazing man came along, I couldn't believe he really wanted me," Canedy tells Ngon, sharing that even though she pushed him away many times, he kept coming back. She credits his level persistence and her own growth and maturity as the foundation to their irreplaceable love.

Canedy says her son is reserved but incredibly comfortable in his skin, thanks to his dad. "He will ask certain things, and I'll say, 'Go see what your father had to say about that,'" she says. "And he'll take out the journal, and I tell him all the time, 'You're having a conversation with your father that many boys don't have and girls with fathers who are living.' And we're so grateful to Charles that he did this, and he left this for our son."

As Canedy raises their son, she holds a treasured piece of guidance close to her heart, and she hopes other parents raising Black children in America can benefit from it, too. "A friend of mine, a Black man, said, 'Don't let people make him a little man,'" she says. "And that's the best advice I ever received." Canedy remembers a time when she and her son (about 5 years old at the time) were walking to the door while she carried handfuls of groceries, and he said, "'Mommy, Mommy, I got it. I'm the man of the house,'" she recalls. Childhood is precious, she says, and she didn't want it to slip away from him. "No, you're not. You're a little boy. You be a boy. It's my job to take care of you."

Jordan and Canedy hope that audiences can connect with all the layers within this movie, especially letting your family know how much you love them whenever you can. "I think that even through tragedy, that love is the strongest bond. With love anything is possible," Jordan says. "If you root yourself in a foundation of love — and that could be love for your partner, love for your family, love for your craft, love for yourself — I think that's something that I want people to walk away from this, hopeful and optimistic about life, about time."

Watch the full video interview now, and follow :BLACKPRINT on Instagram.